Star-Journbal Editor
Before the noon whistle blew Monday, Road Closed signs were up, orange paint marks were down, and power poles were coming out as the improvement project began on South Adams Street in Hillsboro.
For the next 120 days, the main north-south thoroughfare in east Hillsboro will be closed from D Street to B Street.
Adams Street residents living between the barricades have been notified that until the $450,000 project in front of their homes is complete, they'll need to park their cars in the alley.
Eileen Butler doesn't have room to park in the ally behind her house at 414 S. Adams, but good neighbors living next door will let her park at their house until the project is done.
Butler, a retired school teacher, says the promise of improved storm drainage, more water pressure, diagonal parking, and a new street makes the blockade worth the hassle.
Because of poor drainage on Adams Street, she dug trenches in front of her house to keep water from seeping under the crawl space when it rains.
"I'll be happy because there won't be water running in my yard, hopefully," Butler said. "I'll have a better street, so you just have to put up with it sometimes."
Hillsboro Mayor Delores Dalke said the city was fortunate that every house except Butler's has direct access to the alley.
"There haven't been any complaints that I've heard of," Dalke said. "If there have been, they haven't told me. I think everybody's excited about this."
City engineer Bob Previtera was walking along Adams on Monday, carrying a blueprint and showing APAC-Kansas Inc., workers where to paint markers, and which trees (on the west side of the street)to remove.
APAC laborers also were busy putting new batteries in flashing yellow light units, and bolting them onto street barricades.
High overhead, a city electrical department worker in a utility truck bucket was cutting wires off poles and street light fixtures, which need to come down.
The project coincides with the construction of Tabor College's student townhouses, on the west side of South Adams Street, between D Street and C Street.
The city's agreement with Tabor includes adding diagonal parking in front of the townhouses, which will "make a huge difference" in traffic flow, Dalke said.
With the street project now underway and the townhouse construction still going on across the street, Butler says she's looking forward to the free entertainment from the vantage point of her front porch.
"It will be fun," she said. "I can sit out here and watch all the stuff going on.
"I'll be happy when they get done; because it will be nice."
